Wednesday: Shifting Gears On Christmas Eve – Business Day Thursday On Wednesday - Saying Thank You To Your Clients

Good Afternoon everybody and Merry Christmas Eve,
Many of us are at the height of the holiday season celebrating and enjoying good cheer with all of our family and friends. And that's all good. This post was for Business Day Thursday, but since tomorrow is Christmas, I thought it would be more appropriate to post it today on Christmas Eve.

I was thinking how I could make this post not too much business but still a beneficial post for our Business Day Thursday on Wednesday. Here is what I've come up with.

I thought I would you share with everyone what we do at David A. Ziser Photography during the holidays. You know, we should all take time to sit back and reflect about our successes and the reasons for those successes in our business each year.

The easiest way we can do this is by saying thank you to our clients. And, the easiest way to say thank you around the holidays is to send a holiday greeting card. I have been doing this for a number of years here my studio.

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Here's how we go about doing it. Our holiday card list is composed of three groups.

Group 1: Long-term clients. This group represents our best clients; clients that have been doing business with us for a number of years. This group also reflects clients that continue to recommend us to their family and friends. This is a very important group to stay in touch with. This group gives our business continuity year after year. Many of our clients in this group have been receiving holiday greeting cards from us for a very long number of years.

Group 2: Current clients. This group is pretty self-explanatory. It includes clients that are active -- a client whom you are in the process of working with and still in the process of delivering their final order. This group also includes all clients that have done business with us in the current year and clients, particularly wedding and bar bat mitzvah clients, that have you booked for an upcoming event in the future.

Group 3: All your vendor buddies. This is a super important group for your business. It's your vendor's who grease the wheels helping you provide great customer service to your clients. Our vendor list includes everybody we do business with. There may be some instances where we don't do business with them very often in the course of the year but they're still on our list. Basically, any vendor that has been active with us within the past three years is part of this group.

We review and update the entire list every year. We verify the names of all the contacts and their current addresses. Once we are sure that our list is complete and accurate, we run the labels.

Holiday cards are just off the rack cards that you can pick up at any retail location, but are always the best. It's important to me that these are some of the best looking cards that are clients and vendors will receive.

You may be wondering why we just don't order preprinted cards with the studio's name printed right on them. Well to me, this is what makes our holiday card-sending project special. Each card is personalized with a thank you wish to each of our clients and each of our vendors together with a wish for them to have a great new year. The card is then personally signed, sealed, and delivered to the post office.

I think, psychologically, what this does for the studio, is that it gives us a sense of appreciation for our clients and our vendors -- the clients and vendors who support us. It also makes us pause, if only for a moment, and recall that connection with that client or vendor. It's these connections, these relationships, which any successful business needs to maintain in order to continue their success and grow their business.

Yes, it seems like a hassle to get these out right in the middle of the holiday rush - we sent out 300 this year - but, I think it's vitally important to say thank you to our clients and supporters as many times as we possibly can in the course of the year but, especially during the holiday season.

Just another food for thought.

Merry Christmas, Everybody, -David